I was not perhaps in the very sweetest of tempers; for though what I had said below might have been a bit provoking, Wilfrid had turned upon me for it a little too hotly methought. This expedition, to be sure, had a special interest for him, as it had a special interest for Miss Jennings; but so far as I was concerned it was a mere8 sympathetic undertaking9. My cousin, to be sure, was ‘wanting’; but that consideration was not going to render any indignation I might unwarily provoke in him the more endurable. My quarrel, however, just then lay with myself. I was beginning to consider that I had joined Wilfrid in this cruise too hurriedly; that had I insisted upon more time for reflection I should have declined the adventure for the very good reason that I was unable to see how I could be of the least use to him in it. The ocean[93] makes people selfish; its monotony presses upon and contracts the mind as its visible girdle circumscribes10 the sight. Thought is forced inwards, and the intellect devours11 itself as the monkey eats its tail. I was already pining somewhat for the diversions of the shore. Had I been sensible of any limit to the daily and nightly routine of eating, sleeping, keeping a look-out and discussing probabilities, my humour might have lightened somewhat; but on what date was this voyage to end? Where was this white fabric12 that was floating in beauty over the quiet waters going to carry me? Heavy clouds of smoke floated from my lips when I thought that for months and months I might be sundered13 from my club, from the opera, of which I was a very great lover, from the engaging recreation of billiards14, from the quarter of a hundred of pleasures with which the idle man of means loads the blunderbuss of life to shoot at and kill the flying hours as they pass.
Poor Wilfrid, though! I thought with a sigh; and an emotion of pity rose in me as a rebuke15 when I glanced at his long, awkward figure, thought of the bitter heart-ache that left him only when he slept, of his love for his little one, of the dreadful grief and dishonour16 that had come to him, of this apparently17 aimless pursuit upon the boundless18 surface of the ocean of a faithless woman, with the subtle distressing19 quality of madness in all he did, in all he thought, to make his conduct a sadder thing than can be described.
I peeped round the mast for a short view of Miss Jennings. She seemed to have lighted on a chapter in the novel that was interesting. Under the droop20 of her long lashes21 her half-closed violet eyes showed with a drowsy22 gleam; her profile had the delicacy23 of a cameo, clear and tender, against the soft grey of the bulwarks24 past her. Deuced odd, thought I, that I should find her prettiness so fascinating; as though, forsooth, she was the first sweet girl I had ever seen! I filled another pipe and sat awhile puffing25 slowly, with these lines of haunting beauty running in my head:
Have you seen but a bright lily grow,
Before rude hands have touched it?
Have you marked but the fall of the snow
Before the soil hath smutch’d it?
Have you felt the wool of the beaver27?
Or swan’s down ever?
Or have smelt28 o’ the bud o’ the briar?
Or the nard in the fire?
Or have tasted the bag of the bee?
O so white! O so soft! O so sweet is she!
The poet is also the prophet; and maybe, thought I, when old Ben Jonson planned this fairy temple of words, he had his eye on some such another little delicate goddess as that yonder.
But there was to happen presently something of a kind to send sentiment flying.
Bit by bit the cloud-mailed sky had drawn29 away down into the northward30, until far past our mastheads that way it was clear blue[94] heaven with an horizon ruling it of a sort of transparent31 sharpness that made you imagine you saw the atmosphere beyond through it as though it were the edge of some huge lens. The breeze was weak and the yacht’s pace very leisurely32; there were hints of a calm at hand, here and there in certain long glassy swathes which wound like currents amongst the darker shadow of the wrinkling breeze upon the water; to every small roll upon the long sleepy undulation, the main boom swang in with a short rattle33 of canvas in the head of the sail and a flap or two forwards with the smite34 of the mast by the square topsail as though there were hands aloft lazily beating a carpet.
The vessel35 ahead was steering36 dead for us, her masts in one. She was much smaller than I had supposed from the first glimpse I caught of her from the masthead—a little brig, apparently, her cloths showing out rusty37 to the brilliance38 as she neared us, albeit39 afar they had shone like a star of white fire. Her hull40 was of a dirty yellow—a sort of pea soup colour, and the foot of her foresail was spread by a bentinck boom. She was without an atom of interest in my eyes—a small foreigner, as I supposed, sluggishly42 lumbering43 home to some Spanish or Italian port with her forecastle filled with chocolate-coloured Dagos, and the cabin atmosphere poisonous with the lingering fumes44 of bad cooking.
Wilfrid and Finn stood looking at her together, the latter raising a glass to his eye from time to time. I knocked the ashes out of my bowl and crossed over to them.
‘It will be strange if she has any news to give us of the “Shark,”’ said I.
‘We will speak her, of course,’ said Wilfrid.
‘Looks as if she meant to give us the stem,’ exclaimed Finn, with a glance aft at the fellow at the helm; ‘she is steering dead on for us as if her course were a bee-line and we were athwart it.’
‘I expect she’ll not be able to talk to you in English,’ said I.
‘What is her country, do you think, Mr. Monson?’ asked Miss Jennings, closing her volume and joining us.
‘Italian. What say you, captain?’
‘Well, I can’t rightly tell what she is,’ he answered, ‘but I know what she ain’t—and that’s English.’ He stepped aft, bent41 on the ensign, and ran it aloft.
‘Does she see us?’ exclaimed Wilfrid; ‘really she is steering as if she would run us down.’
I took the captain’s glass and brought it to bear. She was bow on, and there was no sign of a head over the forecastle rail—nothing living in the rigging or upon the yards either; the foresail concealed45 the run of her abaft46. ‘She appears derelict,’ said I, ‘with her helm secured amidships, and blowing like the wind—as she listeth.’
‘Time to get out of her road, I think,’ grumbled47 Finn. ‘Down hellum!’
The turn of a spoke48 or two brought the stranger on the lee bow.[95] Then it was that, on taking another view of her through the glass, I observed a couple of men standing49 near a jolly-boat, that swung at a pair of heavy wooden davits like a Nantucket whaler’s on the quarter. One of them wore a red cap resembling an inverted50 flower-pot; the other, whilst he addressed his companion, gesticulated with inconceivable vehemence51.
‘Foreigners of a surety!’ said I; ‘they’ll have no news for us.’
All continued quiet; the two vessels52 approached each other slowly; the stranger now proving herself, as I had supposed her, a brig of about a hundred and eighty tons, as dirty a looking craft as ever I saw, stained in streaks53 about the hull, as though her crew washed the decks down with the water in which they boiled their meat; her rigging slack and grey for want of tar2; the clews of her sails gaping54 at a distance from her yardarms; and at her mainmast-head an immense weather-cock, representing a boat with what I supposed to be a saint standing up in it, with gilt55 enough left upon the metal of which it was formed to flash dully at intervals56 as the rolling of the vessel swung the sunlight off and on to it. As she lifted to the floating heave of the sea she showed a bottom of ugly green sheathing57, rich with marine58 growths, dark patches of barnacles, sea-moss, and long trailings of weed rising vividly59 green from the sparkle of the brine.
‘What a very horrid-looking boat,’ observed Miss Jennings.
As the girl said this, I saw the fellow at the stranger’s wheel revolve60 it with frantic61 gestures as though some deadly danger had been descried62 close aboard; the brig came heavily and sluggishly round right athwart our course, showing no colours, and dipping her channels to the run of the folds with the weary motion of a waterlogged vessel, and so lay all aback. Finn looked on, scarcely understanding the man?uvre, then bawled64 out, ‘Hard down! Hard down! Chuck her right up in the wind! Why, bless my body and soul, what are the fools aiming at?’
The yacht nimbly answering her helm came to a stand, her square canvas to the mast, her fore26 and aft sails fluttering.
‘Hail her, Finn!’ cried Wilfrid with excitement.
‘No need, sir; they’re coming aboard,’ answered the captain, and sure enough there were the men, the only two besides the man at the helm who were visible, working like madmen to lower away their jolly-boat. In their red-hot haste they let her drop with a run, and the fat fabric smote65 the water so heavily that I looked to see her floating in staves alongside. Then down one fall with the agility66 of a monkey dropped the man in the red nightcap into her and unhooked the blocks, jumping about like a madman. His companion swung himself down by the other fall, and in a trice both men, sitting so far in the head of the boat as to cock her stern high up whilst her nose was nearly under, were pulling for the yacht as though the devil himself were in pursuit of them.
‘What do they want? The “Bride”?’ exclaimed Wilfrid,[96] breaking into a huge roar of laughter, with a slap on his knee. He had been eyeing the approach of the boat with a sort of high, lifting stare—head thrown back, nostrils67 round and quivering like an impatient horse’s.
‘The desire of the moth68 for the star!’ said I to Miss Jennings.
‘But the simile69 won’t hold; yonder red nightcap spoils the fancy of the moth.’
‘Shall we receive them aboard, sir?’ exclaimed Captain Finn.
‘Certainly,’ responded Wilfrid, with another short shout of laughter.
‘Unship that there gangway,’ sung out Finn; ‘the steps over the side, one of ye.’
The two strange creatures pulled with amazing contortions70. Small wonder that the heap of child-like disposition71 that pretty well made up the substance of Wilfrid’s manhood, should have been stirred into extravagant72 merriment by the wild movements of the two fellows’ bodies, the windmill-like flourishings of their oars73, the flopping74 and flapping of the red cap, the incessant75 straining and twisting of the chocolate faces over the shoulder to see how they were heading, the shrill76 exclamations77 that sounded from the instant the fellows were within ear-shot and that never ceased until they had floundered and splashed alongside.
I never beheld78 two more hideous79 men. Their skins were begrimmed with dirt, and their colour came near to the complexion80 of the negro with sun and weather and neglect of soap; the hair of the seaman81 that wore the dirty red nightcap fell in snake-like coils upon his back and shoulders, black as tar and shining as grease. He wore thick gold hoops82 in his ears and a faded blue sash round his waist; his feet were naked, and for the like of them it would be necessary to hunt the forests of Brazil. The other man wore a slouched felt hat, a pair of grey trousers jammed into half Wellington boots, a jacket confined by a button at the neck, the sleeves thrown over his back, whilst his dark arms, naked to the elbows, were hairy as a baboon’s, with a glimpse to be caught of a most intricate network of gunpowder84 and Indian ink devices covering the flesh to the very finger-nails. This creature had a very heavy moustache, backed by a pair of fierce whiskers, with flashing, though blood-shot eyes, like a blot85 of ink upon a slice of orange-peel.
We were in a group at the gangway when they came sputtering86 alongside, flinging down their oars and walloping about in the wildest conceivable scramble87 as they made fast the painter and clawed their way up; and the instant they were on our deck they both let fly at us in a torrent89 of words, not attempting to distinguish amongst us, but both of them addressing first one and then another, all with such mad impetuosity of speech, such smiting90 of their bosoms91, such snapping of their fingers and convulsive brandishing92 of their fists, that the irrecognisable tongue in which they[97] delivered themselves was rendered the most hopelessly confounding language that ever bewildered the ear. It was quite impossible to gather what they desired to state. First they would point to our ensign, then to their brig, then to the long gun upon our forecastle, meanwhile talking with indescribable rapidity. Finn tried to check them; he bawled, ‘Stop! stop! You no speakee English?’ but they only stared and let drive again the moment he ended his question.
‘There’s no good in all this,’ said Wilfrid, ‘we must find out what they want. What the deuce is their language, Charles, d’ye know?’
‘A sort of Portuguese93, I imagine,’ said I, ‘but a mighty94 corrupt95 specimen96 of that tongue, I should think.’
‘I will try them in French,’ said he, and approaching the fellow in the red nightcap he bawled in French, with an excellent accent, ‘What is wrong with your ship? What can we do for you?’
Both men shook their heads and broke out together afresh. It was amazing that they should go on jabbering97 as though we perfectly98 understood them when one glance at our faces should have assured them that they might as well have addressed the deck on which they stood.
‘Try ’em in Latin, Wilf,’ cried I.
He addressed a few words to them in that tongue, but his English accent extinguished the hint or two they might have found in the words he employed had he pronounced them in South European fashion, and after glaring at him a moment with a deaf face the red-capped man stormed forth99 again into a passion of speech accompanied by the most incredible gesticulations, pointing to his brig, to our flag, to the cannon100 as before, winding101 up in the delirium102 of his emotion by flinging his cap down on deck and tearing a handful of hair out of his head.
Our crew were all on deck and had come shouldering one another aft as far as they durst, where they stood looking on, a grinning, hearkening, bewhiskered huddle103 of faces. I thought it just possible that one of them might understand the lingo104 of our grimy and astonishing visitors, and suggested as much to Captain Finn. He called out, ‘Do any one of you men follow what these chaps are a-saying?’
A fellow responded, ‘It’s Portugee, sir. I can swear to that, though I can’t talk in it.’
‘Try them in Italian, Laura,’ said Wilfrid.
She coloured, and in a very pretty accent that floated to the ear like the soft sounds of a flute105 after the hoarse106, hideous, and howling gibberish of the two Dagos, as I judged them, she asked if they were Portuguese. The eyes of the fellow in the slouched hat flashed to a great grin that disclosed a very cavern107 of a mouth under his moustache widening to his whiskers, and he nodded violently. She asked again in Italian what they required, but this fell[98] dead. They did not understand her, but possibly imagining that she could comprehend them they both addressed her at once, raising a most irritating clattering108 with their tongues.
‘It looks to me,’ said Finn, ‘as if it was a case o’ mutiny. Don’t see what else can sinnify their constant pointing to that there gun and our flag and then their brig.’
I sent a look at the vessel as he spoke, and took notice now of a number of heads along the line of the main-deck rail, watching us in a sort of ducking way, by which I mean to convey a kind of coming and going of those dusky nobs which suggested a very furtive109 and askant look-out. She was not above a quarter of a mile off; the wheel showed plain and the man at it kept his face upon us continuously, whilst his posture110, Liliputianised as he was, betrayed extraordinary impatience111 and anxiety. The craft lay aback, the light wind hollowing her sails in-board and her ugly besmeared hull rolling in a manner that I suppose was rendered nauseous to the eye by her colour, her form, her frowsy, ill-cut canvas and her sheathing of sickly hue112, foul113 with slimy weed and squalid attire114 of repulsive115 sea-growth upon the long and tender lifting and falling of the sparkling blue. There were some white letters under her counter, but though I took a swift peep at them through Finn’s telescope the shadow there and the long slant116 of the name towards the sternpost rendered the words indecipherable. The glass showed such heads along the rail as I could fix to be strictly117 in keeping with the filth118 and neglect you saw in the brig and with the appearance of the two men aboard of the schooner119. Most of them might have passed for negroes. There were indications of extreme agitation120 amongst them, visible in a sort of fretful flitting, a constant looking up and around and abaft in the direction of the man at the wheel.
I thought I would try my hand with the red-capped worthy121, and striding up to him I sung out ‘Capitano?’
He nodded, striking himself, and then, pointing to his companion, spoke some word, but I did not understand him. By this time the crew had come shoving one another a little further aft, so that we now made a fair crowd all about the gangway; every man’s attention was fixed122 upon the two Portuguese. It was so odd an experience that it created a sort of licence for the crew, and Finn was satisfied to look on whilst first one and then another of our men addressed the two fellows, striving to coax123 some meaning out of them by addressing them in ‘pigeon’ and other forms of English, according to that odd superstition124 current amongst seaman that our language is most intelligible125 to foreigners when spoken in a manner the least intelligible to ourselves.
We of the quarterdeck were beginning to grow weary of all this. The hope of being able to pick up news of the ‘Shark’ had gone out of Wilfrid’s mind long ago; the humour, moreover, of the two creatures’ appearance and apparel was now stale to him, and with folded arms he stood apart watching their gesticulations and listen[99]ing to their jargon—in which it seemed to me they were telling the same story over and over and over again—with a tired air and a gloomy brow. I drew Finn apart.
‘What is the matter with them, think you?’
‘I don’t doubt it’s a mutiny, sir.’
‘It looks like it certainly. But how can we help them?’
‘We can’t help them, sir. The best thing we can do, I think, is to order ’em off. You can see, Mr. Monson, his honour’s growing sick of the noise.’
I started suddenly.
‘Why, Finn, look!’ I cried, ‘see! they have trimmed sail on the brig and she is under way!’
It was indeed as I had said. Unobserved by us, the people of the vessel had squared the mainyards and flattened126 in the head-sheets, and there she was away to windward, pushing slowly through it with a brassy wrinkling of water at her stem, her crew running about her as active as ants, whilst I noticed in the difference of costume that a new man had replaced the fellow who was at the wheel.
‘Mind,’ I shouted, ‘or by Jupiter they’ll run away with the ship and leave this brace127 of beauties on our hands.’
A single glance enabled Finn to see how it was. In a breath he sprang upon the red-capped man, caught him by the collar, twisted his head round in the direction of the brig, whilst he yelled in his ear, ‘Lookee! lookee! your ship go! your ship go; jumpee, jumpee or you loosee ship!’ It was not likely that the grimy creature would have met with a ghost of a hint of the truth in the ‘lookees’ and ‘jumpees’ of friend Finn, but his nose having being slewed128 in the right direction he instantly saw for himself. He broke out in a long ringing howl which I took to be some tremendous sea-curse in the Portuguese language, and calling his companion’s attention to the brig by striking him with his clenched129 fist between the shoulders and then indicating the vessel with both arms outstretched in a melodramatic posture that made one think of Masaniello, he uttered another wild roar that was no doubt a further example of Portuguese bad language, and went in a sprawl130 to the gangway, followed by his comrade. In a trice they were over the side and in the boat, and pulling furiously in the direction of the brig.
‘Better trim sail, Captain Finn, so as to lie up for that vessel,’ exclaimed Wilfrid. ‘We must see those men aboard and the little drama played out, though ’tis vexatiously delaying.’
It was now blowing a very light air of wind, yet there was weight enough in it to hold steady the canvas of the Portuguese brig even to the lifting of her foresail, lumpish as those cloths were made by the boom that spread the clews, and one saw by the wake of her that she was stirring through it at a pace to render the pursuit of the boat long and possibly hopeless, if the crew refused to back their yards for the two follows. The boat was a fat, tub-like[100] fabric, apparently heavy for her size, and the rowers pulled with such alternate heat and passion, that though they made the water buzz and foam131 about the bows, their motion was as erratic—first to right, then to left, then a spasmodic heave round as though they meant to return to us—as the course of a fly climbing a pane132 of glass. The whole picture was thrown out strong and clear by the background of sparkling azure133 water melting into a sort of trembling faintness off the horizon to above the height of the brig’s masts against the sky, which from there ran up in a tint134 of deepening blue till it whitened out into glory round about the sun. The boat rose and fell upon the long ocean heave, splashed wildly forwards by the two rowers, who again and again would turn their mahogany-coloured faces over their shoulders to yell to the withdrawing vessel. The brig’s crew stood in a crowd aft watching, most of them, as the glass disclosed, in a loafing, lounging posture, their bare arms folded or their hands sunk in their breeches-pockets, whilst one or another occasionally pointed135 at us or the boat with a theatrical136 attitude of leaning back as he did so that made one fancy one could hear the laughter or the curses which attended these gestures. On high rustily137 glittered the amazing old weathercock or dog-vane of the saint in his boat, from which would leap with pendulum138 regularity139 a dull flame sunwards, timing140 a like kind of fire which flashed wet from the dirty yellow and sickly green of the hull, as her side rolled streaming to the noon-tide blaze.
‘I say, Wilfrid,’ cried I, ‘it doesn’t seem as if those chaps meant to let that boat approach them.’
‘What’s to be done?’ he exclaimed.
I looked at Finn. ‘If they don’t pick those two fellows up,’ said I, ‘we shall have to do so, that’s cocksure. But they are a kind of beauties whose room is better than their company, I think, as the crew would find out when we approached the equinoctial waters.’
‘Ay, sir,’ cried Finn, ‘it would never do to have the likes o’ them aboard, your honour,’ addressing Sir Wilfrid. ‘No, no, the brig must pick ’em up. Dang their cruel hearts! I never seed a scurvier trick played at sea in all my days.’
‘But what’s to be done?’ cried Wilfrid impatiently and irritably141. ‘Could one of our boats overhaul142 the brig and put the two fellows aboard her?’
Finn shook his head.
‘See here, Wilf,’ said I: ‘suppose we let slip a blank shot at her out of that eighteen-pounder yonder? The dirty herd143 of scow-bankers may take us to be a man of war. And another idea on top of this!’ cried I, bursting into a laugh. ‘Is there anything black aboard that we can fly at the masthead? It should prove a warrant of our honesty that must puzzle them gloriously.’
‘Would a black shawl do, Mr. Monson?’ said Miss Jennings.
‘The very thing,’ said I, ‘if it’s big enough.’
[101]
She immediately went below.
‘I think a blank shot’s a first-class idea,’ exclaimed Finn, ‘but as to a black flag——’ and he cocked his eye dubiously144 at the masthead, whilst his face visibly lengthened145.
‘Why a black flag, Charles?’ cried Wilfrid.
‘Why, my dear Wilf,—the pirate’s bunting, you know. The rogues146 may take us for a picaroon—no telling the persuasive147 influence of a black banner upon the nerves of such gentry148.’
‘Noble! noble!’ shouted Wilfrid, slapping his leg: ‘frighten them, Finn, frighten them. Why, man, they can’t be all fools, and some of them at least will very well know that that ensign up there,’ pointing to the commercial flag at our peak, ‘is not her Britannic Majesty’s red cross. But a black flag—oh, yes, by all means if we can but muster149 such a thing. And get that gun loaded, will ye, Finn? get it done at once, I say.’
The skipper walked hurriedly forward as Miss Laura arrived with a black cashmere or crape shawl—I do not recollect150 the material. We held it open between us.
‘The very thing,’ I cried, and full of excitement—for here was something genuine in the way of an incident to break in upon the monotony of a sea trip—I bent the shawl on to the signal halliards that led from the main-topmast head and sent it aloft in a little ball, ready to break when the gun should be fired.
Meanwhile all was bustle151 forwards. It is a question whether Jack83 does not love firing off a cannon even better than beating a drum. Miss Jennings walked right aft as far as she could go, holding her fingers in readiness for her ears and saying to me as she passed that sudden noises frightened her. Wilfrid stood alongside of me, glancing with a boyish expression of excitement and expectation from the seamen152 congregated153 round the gun to the little black ball at the masthead. The yacht was slowly overhauling154 the brig, but almost imperceptibly. The boat maintained an equidistance betwixt us and was struggling, wabbling, and splashing fair in a line with our cutwater and the lee-quarter of the Portuguese craft. The two rowers exhibited no signs of exhaustion155, though I expected every minute to find one or both of them give up and disappear, dead beaten, in the bottom of their tub.
‘All ready forward, sir,’ shouted Finn; ‘will your honour give us the signal when to fire?’
As he sung out the group of seamen hustled156 backwards157 from the gun and thinned into meagre lines of spectators at a safe distance.
‘Fire!’ bawled Wilfrid.
There was a glance of flame past the bow port, a roar that tingled158 through the decks into one’s very marrow159, and the sea turned blind with white smoke, iridescent160 as a cobweb, over the bows of the ‘Bride.’ I tugged161 at the signal halliards, broke my little ball, and the black shawl floated out fair from the masthead, as sinister162 a piratic symbol as one could have desired and not an[102] atom the less malignant163 in significance for wanting the old-fashioned embellishments of the cross-bones and skull164. I saw the Jacks165 forward looking up at the sight with grinning wonderment. However, it was easy to see by their way of laughing, staring, and turning to one another, that they twigged166 the motive167 of that wild marine exhibition. I sprang to the peak signal halliards and hauled the ensign down, for the black flag combines but ill with the union Jack, and then went to the side to see what the brig was about. Either she did not understand our meaning, or was resolved not to take any hint from us. She held on doggedly168 without a touch of the braces169 or a shift of the helm by the length of a spoke, with her people watching us and the pursuing boat from over the taffrail, a cluster of sulphur-coloured faces, as they looked at that distance, but harmonising excellently well, I thought, with the dingy170 yellow of the canvas rising in ungainly spaces over their heads and the sickly hue of the brig’s hull with its shiny, pea-soup-like reflection in the water to the lift of the squalid fabric upon some polished brow of swell171.
‘Wilfrid,’ cried I, ‘they don’t mean to pick up their boat.’
‘It looks like it,’ said he; ‘what’s to be done? There’s some thing confoundedly insulting in the rogues’ indifference172 to our gun and colours.’
‘Better consult with Finn,’ said I.
He called to the skipper, who came to us from the forecastle.
‘I say, Finn, what are we to do? We don’t want those two filthy173 fellows aboard this yacht; and yet, if that brig don’t pick them up, we can’t of course let them remain adrift here.’
‘Arm a boat’s crew,’ said I; ‘you have weapons enough below. Take those two fellows out of yonder boat and compel the brig to receive them. I’ll take charge with pleasure if Finn’ll permit.’
Finn, a slow, sober, steady old merchant seaman, did not seem to see this. The expression of worry made his long face comical with the puzzled twist at the corners of his mouth, which looked to be, in his countenance174, where most men’s noses are situated175.
‘Or,’ said I, observing him to hang in the wind, ‘make them really believe that those are the colours we sail under,’ pointing to the shawl, ‘by slapping a round-shot at them in sober earnest, leaving the missile to take its chance of missing or hitting.’
‘That’s it,’ almost shrieked176 Wilfrid in his excitement; ‘yes! that’ll save the botheration of boat-lowering and arguefication and perhaps bloodshed, by George! Run forward now, Finn, and let fly a round-shot at that ugly brute177; hit her if you can, no matter where, that they may know we’re in earnest, and that they may believe if they don’t heave to we shall sink them. No remonstrance178, Finn, for heaven’s sake! Jump, my dear fellow. Dash it, man,’ he cried passionately179, with a quite furious gesture in the direction of the brig, ‘that’s not the object of our chase!’
Finn, with an air of concern, but awed88 also by Wilfrid’s temper[103] and insistence180, hurried on to the forecastle. I watched them load the gun a second time, and burst into a laugh when I saw two fellows rise out of the fore hatch, each of them hugging an eighteen-pound shot to his heart.
‘Only one ball at a time,’ shouted Wilfrid, conceiving very likely that they meant to double-shot the gun.
‘Ay, ay, sir,’ responded Finn.
The crew backed away as before. The stout181, whiskered sea man, with a face that made one think of a red apple snugged182 in a setting of horse-hair, who had previously183 fired the gun and who was apparently the ‘Bride’s’ gunner, sighted the piece with a deliberateness that made me expect wonders. We all held our breath. I fixed my eye on the brig to observe, if possible, where the shot struck her. Then, crash! Had the cannon been loaded to the muzzle184 the blast could not have been more deafening185. The thunder of it swept with a thrill, out and away fiercer than the tremble of the first shock, through the deck, and was almost immediately followed by a loud and fearful yell from the forecastle. I thought the gun had burst.
‘Merciful powers! What has happened?’ cried Wilfrid.
Captain Finn came bowling186 aft fast as his legs would travel, shouting as he ran.
‘What is it? what is it?’ my cousin and I roared out in one voice.
‘The shot’s struck the boat, your honours, and sunk her!’ bellowed187 Finn.
I looked, and sure enough where the boat had been there was nothing to be seen but the violet slope of the swell softly drawing out of the cloud of powder-smoke that was settling in lengthening188, glistening189 folds towards the brig! I thought I observed something dark, however, and snatching up Finn’s telescope from the skylight-top I levelled it and made out the head of the man with the red nightcap holding by an oar63 or bit of wreckage190. I shouted out that one of the men was alive in the water. The dismay was universal, but there was no disorder191, no commotion192. By waiting a little the ‘Bride,’ even as she was heading, would have floated to the spot where that melancholy193 red beacon194 was bobbing; but the delay this would have involved was not to be dreamt of. With a smartness that excited my admiration195, man-of-war’s-man as I had been in my time, our largest boat, a six-oared fabric, with sour old Crimp in the stern-sheets, was lowered and pulled away with splendid precision in the direction of the red nightcap. In a few minutes they had got the fellow in-boards; they then hung upon their oars, looking round and round; but the other unfortunate creature, he of the slouched hat and black and flashing eyes, had found a sailor’s grave. I sought with the glass over a broad field of water, but could see nothing. Indeed there was not a vestige196 left of the boat save what the red-capped chap had clung to.
‘One of them killed! Heaven have mercy upon us,’ groaned[104] Wilfrid in my ear, and his appearance was full of dreadful consternation197.
Meanwhile the brig ahead was holding steadfastly198 on, her crowd of people aft gazing at us as before. I took a view of them; they all held a sort of gaping posture; there were no dramatic gesticulations, no eager and derisive199 turning to one another, no pointing arms and backward-leaning attitudes. They had as thunderstruck an air as can be imagined in a mob of men. What they supposed us to be now after our extermination200 of the boat and one of the two fellows who had sought our assistance, it was impossible to conjecture201.
Our boat, that had sped away from us about four times faster than we were moving through the water, hung, with lifted oars, over the spot where our cannon-ball had taken effect until the ‘Bride’ had slowly surged to within hail; then up stood sour Crimp.
‘What are we to do?’
‘Have you got both men?’ bawled Finn, who perfectly well knew that they hadn’t.
‘No; there was but one to get, and here he is,’ and Crimp pointed into the bottom of the boat.
‘Put him aboard his ship,’ cried Finn. ‘If they refuse to receive him, find out if there’s e’er a one of ’em that can speak English, and then tell them that if they don’t take him we shall arm our men and compel ’em to it; and if that don’t do we’ll keep all on firing into ’em till they follow the road that’s been took by their jolly-boat.’
His long face was purple with temper and the effort of shouting, and he turned it upon Wilfrid, who nodded a fierce excited approval, whilst I cried, ‘That’s it, that’s it; they must take him.’
Crimp held up his hand in token of having heard the captain, then seated himself; the oars fell and flashed as they rose wet to the sun, every gold-bright blade in a line, and the foam went spinning away from the bows of the little craft in snow to the magnificent disciplined sweep of those British muscles. In a jiffy she was on the brig’s quarter, with Crimp erect202 in her, gesticulating to the crowd who overhung the rail. I kept the telescope bearing on them, and it seemed to me that the whole huddle of them jabbered203 to Crimp all together, an indistinguishable hubbub204, to judge from the extraordinary contortions into which every individual figure flung itself, some of them going to the lengths of spinning round in their frenzy205, whilst others leapt upon the rail and addressed the boat’s crew with uplifted arms, as though they called all sorts of maledictions down upon our men. This went on for a few minutes, then I saw the bow-oar fork out his boat-hook and drag the boat to the main channels into which, all very expeditiously206, two or three brawny207 pairs of arms lifted the red-capped man. Then four of our fellows sprang into the chains, handed the little creature over the rail and let him drop in-boards. They then re-entered their boat and fell astern of the brig by a few fathoms208, holding their[105] station there by a soft plying209 of oars, Crimp’s notion probably being, as ours was indeed, that the Portuguese crew would presently send our friend the red-cap to follow his mate.
We waited, watching intently. On a sudden I spied the red-cap in the heart of the mob of men that had clustered again near the wheel. His gesticulations were full of remonstrance; his people writhed210 round about him in the throes of a Portuguese argument, but it seemed to me as I followed their gestures and their way of turning their faces towards us, that their talk was all about our schooner, as though indeed their mutinous211 passions had been diverted by our cannon-shot in a direction that boded212 no particular evil to the red-capped man.
‘They’ll not hurt the creature, I believe,’ said I.
‘Call the men aboard, Finn,’ exclaimed Wilfrid, ‘and get the “Bride” to her course.’
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1
effulgence
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| n.光辉 | |
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2
tar
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| n.柏油，焦油；vt.涂或浇柏油/焦油于 | |
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3
exquisite
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| adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的 | |
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yearning
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| a.渴望的；向往的；怀念的 | |
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5
conversed
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| v.交谈，谈话( converse的过去式 ) | |
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6
cape
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| n.海角，岬；披肩，短披风 | |
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squatted
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| v.像动物一样蹲下( squat的过去式和过去分词 )；非法擅自占用（土地或房屋）；为获得其所有权；而占用某片公共用地。 | |
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8
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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undertaking
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| n.保证，许诺，事业 | |
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10
circumscribes
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| v.在…周围划线( circumscribe的第三人称单数 )；划定…范围；限制；限定 | |
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devours
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| 吞没( devour的第三人称单数 )； 耗尽； 津津有味地看； 狼吞虎咽地吃光 | |
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12
fabric
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| n.织物，织品，布；构造，结构，组织 | |
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13
sundered
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| v.隔开，分开( sunder的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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14
billiards
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| n.台球 | |
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15
rebuke
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| v.指责，非难，斥责 [反]praise | |
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16
dishonour
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| n./vt.拒付（支票、汇票、票据等）；vt.凌辱，使丢脸；n.不名誉，耻辱，不光彩 | |
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17
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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18
boundless
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| adj.无限的；无边无际的；巨大的 | |
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19
distressing
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| a.使人痛苦的 | |
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20
droop
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| v.低垂，下垂；凋萎，萎靡 | |
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21
lashes
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| n.鞭挞( lash的名词复数 )；鞭子；突然猛烈的一击；急速挥动v.鞭打( lash的第三人称单数 )；煽动；紧系；怒斥 | |
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22
drowsy
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| adj.昏昏欲睡的，令人发困的 | |
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23
delicacy
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| n.精致，细微，微妙，精良；美味，佳肴 | |
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24
bulwarks
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| n.堡垒( bulwark的名词复数 )；保障；支柱；舷墙 | |
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25
puffing
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| v.使喷出( puff的现在分词 )；喷着汽（或烟）移动；吹嘘；吹捧 | |
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26
fore
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| adv.在前面；adj.先前的；在前部的；n.前部 | |
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27
beaver
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| n.海狸，河狸 | |
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28
smelt
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| v.熔解，熔炼；n.银白鱼，胡瓜鱼 | |
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29
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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30
northward
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| adv.向北；n.北方的地区 | |
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31
transparent
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| adj.明显的，无疑的；透明的 | |
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32
leisurely
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| adj.悠闲的；从容的，慢慢的 | |
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33
rattle
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| v.飞奔，碰响；激怒；n.碰撞声；拨浪鼓 | |
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34
smite
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| v.重击；彻底击败；n.打；尝试；一点儿 | |
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35
vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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36
steering
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| n.操舵装置 | |
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37
rusty
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| adj.生锈的；锈色的；荒废了的 | |
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38
brilliance
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| n.光辉，辉煌，壮丽，（卓越的）才华，才智 | |
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39
albeit
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| conj.即使；纵使；虽然 | |
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40
hull
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| n.船身；(果、实等的)外壳；vt.去(谷物等)壳 | |
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41
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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42
sluggishly
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| adv.懒惰地；缓慢地 | |
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43
lumbering
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| n.采伐林木 | |
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44
fumes
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| n.(强烈而刺激的)气味，气体 | |
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45
concealed
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| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
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46
abaft
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| prep.在…之后；adv.在船尾，向船尾 | |
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47
grumbled
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| 抱怨( grumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 发牢骚； 咕哝； 发哼声 | |
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48
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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49
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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50
inverted
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| adj.反向的，倒转的v.使倒置，使反转( invert的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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51
vehemence
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| n.热切；激烈；愤怒 | |
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52
vessels
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| n.血管( vessel的名词复数 )；船；容器；（具有特殊品质或接受特殊品质的）人 | |
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53
streaks
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| n.（与周围有所不同的）条纹( streak的名词复数 )；（通常指不好的）特征（倾向）；（不断经历成功或失败的）一段时期v.快速移动( streak的第三人称单数 )；使布满条纹 | |
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54
gaping
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| adj.口的；张口的；敞口的；多洞穴的v.目瞪口呆地凝视( gape的现在分词 )；张开，张大 | |
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55
gilt
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| adj.镀金的；n.金边证券 | |
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56
intervals
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| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
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57
sheathing
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| n.覆盖物，罩子v.将（刀、剑等）插入鞘( sheathe的现在分词 )；包，覆盖 | |
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58
marine
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| adj.海的；海生的；航海的；海事的；n.水兵 | |
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59
vividly
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| adv.清楚地，鲜明地，生动地 | |
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60
revolve
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| vi.(使)旋转；循环出现 | |
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61
frantic
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| adj.狂乱的，错乱的，激昂的 | |
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62
descried
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| adj.被注意到的，被发现的，被看到的 | |
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63
oar
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| n.桨，橹，划手；v.划行 | |
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64
bawled
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| v.大叫，大喊( bawl的过去式和过去分词 )；放声大哭；大声叫出；叫卖（货物） | |
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65
smote
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| v.猛打，重击，打击( smite的过去式 ) | |
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66
agility
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| n.敏捷，活泼 | |
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67
nostrils
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| 鼻孔( nostril的名词复数 ) | |
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68
moth
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| n.蛾，蛀虫 | |
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69
simile
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| n.直喻，明喻 | |
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70
contortions
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| n.扭歪，弯曲；扭曲，弄歪，歪曲( contortion的名词复数 ) | |
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71
disposition
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| n.性情，性格；意向，倾向；排列，部署 | |
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72
extravagant
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| adj.奢侈的；过分的；(言行等)放肆的 | |
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73
oars
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| n.桨，橹( oar的名词复数 )；划手v.划（行）( oar的第三人称单数 ) | |
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74
flopping
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| n.贬调v.（指书、戏剧等）彻底失败( flop的现在分词 )；（因疲惫而）猛然坐下；（笨拙地、不由自主地或松弛地）移动或落下；砸锅 | |
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75
incessant
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| adj.不停的，连续的 | |
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76
shrill
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| adj.尖声的；刺耳的；v尖叫 | |
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77
exclamations
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| n.呼喊( exclamation的名词复数 )；感叹；感叹语；感叹词 | |
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78
beheld
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| v.看，注视( behold的过去式和过去分词 )；瞧；看呀；（叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现）哎哟 | |
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79
hideous
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| adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的 | |
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80
complexion
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| n.肤色；情况，局面；气质，性格 | |
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81
seaman
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| n.海员，水手，水兵 | |
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82
hoops
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| n.箍( hoop的名词复数 )；（篮球）篮圈；（旧时儿童玩的）大环子；（两端埋在地里的）小铁弓 | |
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83
jack
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| n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克 | |
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84
gunpowder
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| n.火药 | |
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85
blot
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| vt.弄脏（用吸墨纸）吸干；n.污点，污渍 | |
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86
sputtering
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| n.反应溅射法；飞溅；阴极真空喷镀；喷射v.唾沫飞溅( sputter的现在分词 )；发劈啪声；喷出；飞溅出 | |
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87
scramble
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| v.爬行，攀爬，杂乱蔓延，碎片，片段，废料 | |
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88
awed
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| adj.充满敬畏的，表示敬畏的v.使敬畏，使惊惧( awe的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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89
torrent
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| n.激流，洪流；爆发，(话语等的)连发 | |
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90
smiting
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| v.猛打，重击，打击( smite的现在分词 ) | |
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91
bosoms
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| 胸部( bosom的名词复数 )； 胸怀； 女衣胸部（或胸襟）； 和爱护自己的人在一起的情形 | |
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92
brandishing
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| v.挥舞( brandish的现在分词 )；炫耀 | |
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93
Portuguese
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| n.葡萄牙人；葡萄牙语 | |
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94
mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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95
corrupt
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| v.贿赂，收买；adj.腐败的，贪污的 | |
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96
specimen
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| n.样本，标本 | |
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97
jabbering
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| v.急切而含混不清地说( jabber的现在分词 )；急促兴奋地说话；结结巴巴 | |
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98
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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99
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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100
cannon
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| n.大炮，火炮；飞机上的机关炮 | |
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101
winding
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| n.绕，缠，绕组，线圈 | |
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102
delirium
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| n. 神智昏迷,说胡话;极度兴奋 | |
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103
huddle
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| vi.挤作一团；蜷缩；vt.聚集；n.挤在一起的人 | |
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104
lingo
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| n.语言不知所云，外国话，隐语 | |
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105
flute
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| n.长笛；v.吹笛 | |
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106
hoarse
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| adj.嘶哑的，沙哑的 | |
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107
cavern
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| n.洞穴，大山洞 | |
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108
clattering
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| 发出咔哒声（clatter的现在分词形式） | |
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109
furtive
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| adj.鬼鬼崇崇的，偷偷摸摸的 | |
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110
posture
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| n.姿势，姿态，心态，态度；v.作出某种姿势 | |
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111
impatience
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| n.不耐烦，急躁 | |
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112
hue
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| n.色度；色调；样子 | |
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113
foul
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| adj.污秽的；邪恶的；v.弄脏；妨害；犯规；n.犯规 | |
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114
attire
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| v.穿衣，装扮[同]array；n.衣着；盛装 | |
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115
repulsive
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| adj.排斥的，使人反感的 | |
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116
slant
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| v.倾斜，倾向性地编写或报道；n.斜面，倾向 | |
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117
strictly
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| adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地 | |
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118
filth
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| n.肮脏，污物，污秽；淫猥 | |
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119
schooner
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| n.纵帆船 | |
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120
agitation
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| n.搅动；搅拌；鼓动，煽动 | |
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121
worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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122
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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123
coax
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| v.哄诱，劝诱，用诱哄得到，诱取 | |
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124
superstition
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| n.迷信，迷信行为 | |
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125
intelligible
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| adj.可理解的，明白易懂的，清楚的 | |
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126
flattened
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| [医]（水）平扁的，弄平的 | |
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127
brace
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| n. 支柱,曲柄,大括号; v. 绷紧,顶住,(为困难或坏事)做准备 | |
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128
slewed
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| adj.喝醉的v.杀死，宰杀，杀戮( slay的过去式 )( slew的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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129
clenched
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| v.紧握，抓紧，咬紧( clench的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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130
sprawl
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| vi.躺卧，扩张，蔓延；vt.使蔓延；n.躺卧，蔓延 | |
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131
foam
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| v./n.泡沫，起泡沫 | |
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132
pane
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| n.窗格玻璃，长方块 | |
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133
azure
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| adj.天蓝色的，蔚蓝色的 | |
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134
tint
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| n.淡色，浅色；染发剂；vt.着以淡淡的颜色 | |
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135
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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136
theatrical
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| adj.剧场的，演戏的；做戏似的，做作的 | |
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137
rustily
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| 锈蚀地，声音沙哑地 | |
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138
pendulum
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| n.摆，钟摆 | |
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139
regularity
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| n.规律性，规则性；匀称，整齐 | |
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140
timing
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| n.时间安排，时间选择 | |
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141
irritably
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| ad.易生气地 | |
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142
overhaul
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| v./n.大修，仔细检查 | |
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143
herd
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| n.兽群，牧群；vt.使集中，把…赶在一起 | |
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144
dubiously
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| adv.可疑地，怀疑地 | |
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145
lengthened
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| （时间或空间）延长，伸长( lengthen的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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146
rogues
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| n.流氓( rogue的名词复数 )；无赖；调皮捣蛋的人；离群的野兽 | |
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147
persuasive
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| adj.有说服力的，能说得使人相信的 | |
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148
gentry
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| n.绅士阶级，上层阶级 | |
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149
muster
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| v.集合，收集，鼓起，激起；n.集合，检阅，集合人员，点名册 | |
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150
recollect
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| v.回忆，想起，记起，忆起，记得 | |
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151
bustle
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| v.喧扰地忙乱，匆忙，奔忙；n.忙碌；喧闹 | |
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152
seamen
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| n.海员 | |
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153
congregated
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| （使）集合，聚集( congregate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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154
overhauling
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| n.大修；拆修；卸修；翻修v.彻底检查( overhaul的现在分词 )；大修；赶上；超越 | |
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155
exhaustion
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| n.耗尽枯竭，疲惫，筋疲力尽，竭尽，详尽无遗的论述 | |
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156
hustled
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| 催促（hustle的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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157
backwards
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| adv.往回地，向原处，倒，相反，前后倒置地 | |
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158
tingled
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| v.有刺痛感( tingle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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159
marrow
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| n.骨髓；精华；活力 | |
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160
iridescent
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| adj.彩虹色的，闪色的 | |
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161
tugged
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| v.用力拉，使劲拉，猛扯( tug的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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162
sinister
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| adj.不吉利的，凶恶的，左边的 | |
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163
malignant
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| adj.恶性的，致命的；恶意的，恶毒的 | |
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164
skull
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| n.头骨；颅骨 | |
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165
jacks
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| n.抓子游戏；千斤顶( jack的名词复数 )；（电）插孔；[电子学]插座；放弃 | |
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166
twigged
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| 有细枝的，有嫩枝的 | |
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167
motive
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| n.动机，目的；adv.发动的，运动的 | |
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168
doggedly
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| adv.顽强地，固执地 | |
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169
braces
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| n.吊带，背带；托架( brace的名词复数 )；箍子；括弧；（儿童）牙箍v.支住( brace的第三人称单数 )；撑牢；使自己站稳；振作起来 | |
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170
dingy
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| adj.昏暗的，肮脏的 | |
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171
swell
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| vi.膨胀，肿胀；增长，增强 | |
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172
indifference
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| n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎 | |
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173
filthy
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| adj.卑劣的；恶劣的，肮脏的 | |
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174
countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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175
situated
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| adj.坐落在...的，处于某种境地的 | |
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176
shrieked
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| v.尖叫( shriek的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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177
brute
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| n.野兽，兽性 | |
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178
remonstrance
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| n抗议，抱怨 | |
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179
passionately
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| ad.热烈地，激烈地 | |
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180
insistence
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| n.坚持；强调；坚决主张 | |
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182
snugged
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| v.整洁的( snug的过去式和过去分词 )；温暖而舒适的；非常舒适的；紧身的 | |
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183
previously
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| adv.以前，先前（地） | |
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184
muzzle
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| n.鼻口部；口套；枪(炮)口；vt.使缄默 | |
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185
deafening
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| adj. 振耳欲聋的, 极喧闹的 动词deafen的现在分词形式 | |
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186
bowling
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| n.保龄球运动 | |
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187
bellowed
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| v.发出吼叫声，咆哮（尤指因痛苦）( bellow的过去式和过去分词 )；（愤怒地）说出（某事），大叫 | |
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188
lengthening
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| （时间或空间）延长，伸长( lengthen的现在分词 )； 加长 | |
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189
glistening
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| adj.闪耀的，反光的v.湿物闪耀，闪亮( glisten的现在分词 ) | |
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190
wreckage
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| n.（失事飞机等的）残骸，破坏，毁坏 | |
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191
disorder
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| n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调 | |
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192
commotion
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| n.骚动，动乱 | |
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193
melancholy
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| n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的 | |
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194
beacon
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| n.烽火，（警告用的）闪火灯，灯塔 | |
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195
admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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196
vestige
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| n.痕迹，遗迹，残余 | |
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197
consternation
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| n.大为吃惊，惊骇 | |
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198
steadfastly
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| adv.踏实地，不变地；岿然；坚定不渝 | |
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199
derisive
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| adj.嘲弄的 | |
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200
extermination
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| n.消灭，根绝 | |
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201
conjecture
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| n./v.推测，猜测 | |
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202
erect
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| n./v.树立，建立，使竖立；adj.直立的，垂直的 | |
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203
jabbered
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| v.急切而含混不清地说( jabber的过去式和过去分词 )；急促兴奋地说话 | |
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204
hubbub
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| n.嘈杂；骚乱 | |
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205
frenzy
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| n.疯狂，狂热，极度的激动 | |
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206
expeditiously
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| adv.迅速地，敏捷地 | |
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207
brawny
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| adj.强壮的 | |
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208
fathoms
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| 英寻( fathom的名词复数 ) | |
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209
plying
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| v.使用（工具）( ply的现在分词 )；经常供应（食物、饮料）；固定往来；经营生意 | |
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210
writhed
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| （因极度痛苦而）扭动或翻滚( writhe的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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211
mutinous
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| adj.叛变的，反抗的；adv.反抗地，叛变地；n.反抗，叛变 | |
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212
boded
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| v.预示，预告，预言( bode的过去式和过去分词 )；等待，停留( bide的过去分词 )；居住；（过去式用bided）等待 | |
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